Turkey's identity crisis

France's governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), is planning to incorporate a required referendum on EU membership for Turkey in the French constitution, a move that has renewed debate on the proposed accession. Against this backdrop, the daily economic paper Les Echos analyses Turkey's current crisis and its relation to the European Union: "All the players in the classical tragedies are there: the warrior, the politicians, the monk and the people. For over a year now, Turkey has been moving towards an institutional crisis with as yet unforeseeable consequences for NATO's easternmost members. ... This latest crisis was triggered by the ruling party … which represents an Islamism that is in principle moderate and has been pushed into a trial of strength with the Turkish military, which sees itself as the protector of 'Kemalism'-inspired secularism. ... The EU membership talks are the only possibility for Turkey to make progress. ... But under no circumstances should Turkey use a gloomy outlook vis-à-vis EU membership as an excuse to halt its slow progress towards reform."

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